The gaming, arcade, and vending machine industry relies heavily on electromechanical counters, otherwise referred to as meters, to count coin and currency input. These electromechanical counters are the default standard used by gaming compliance agencies and other business entities to keep track of the monetary history of these devices. The meters report coin-in, coin-out (coins paid out), coins to drop (coins that go to the drop bucket), the number of games played, the number of jackpots, etc. Vending machines and arcade game machines use meters for similar functions.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of such a meter as used in a gaming machine for tracking “coins in”. As illustrated, the meter 20 is associated with a meter interface 22. The interface 22 is normally associated with a master gaming machine controller 24. The meter 20 includes a visible count indicator 26 in the form of rotating wheels having numbers printed thereon, the wheels cooperating to present a value indicative of coin input or other data. A person may visually inspect the count indicator 26 to obtain the data.
In use, a signal may be transmitted from a coin comparator 30 or hopper 32 indicating that a coin has been received. This signal may be transmitted to the master gaming machine controller 24. The master gaming machine controller 24 then sends a signal to the meter interface 22 indicating that a coin has been input, and that the meter 20 should be caused to increment the visible count indicator 26. The signal from the master gaming machine controller 24 to the meter interface 22 is generally in accordance with a unique, and often proprietary communication/data protocol. The importance of this will be understood below. In any event, once the interface receives the data, it sends a signal to the meter 20 causing the meter to mechanically rotate one of the wheels of the count indicator 26 to reflect the coin input.
In the gaming industry, electronic systems have been devised that tap into the wire leads of the electromechanical meters and use an optically-isolated circuit that receives current when the meter is energized. This is used to acquire what is commonly known as the “soft” count (as opposed to a “hard” count, which comprises viewing the visible count indicator to obtain the data), because the machine system software is used to store the updated meter information in the machine logic board, or in a computer database via a network from the machine.
The interface and installation of these systems are labor intensive and require skilled technicians to properly tap into the meters. Errors in the installation can cause the machine and the meter to malfunction. For example, by tapping into the meter leads, the impedance and other electrical characteristics of the circuit may be substantially altered. This alteration may prevent proper operation of the meter. Additionally, the amount of circuitry and cabling required to interface with all of the various types of machines and manufacturers is extensive.
Another problem is that the firmware program required to support all of the different installations and machine types is extensive and requires very specialized programming skills. In the gaming industry, the more modern slot machine designs provide meter information via a specialized serial interface which, as discussed above, may operate in accordance with a proprietary protocol. Because slot machine vendors often sell electronic slot machine accounting systems, they will charge fees to use the protocol. Some of these protocols have become industry standards, and the owners of these standards charge fees for the latest versions or enhancements. Thus, obtaining the meter information by tapping into the data lines first requires knowledge of ever-changing protocols and complex programming, and may also require payment to the slot machine vendor which owns the rights in the proprietary protocol.
No matter how new the design of the machine is and the protocol for data transfer with its interface, however, the electromechanical meter is still the standard for measurement. Just like an odometer in an automobile, it must be reliable and trusted and not easily tampered with. The electromechanical meter manufacturers design these devices to work reliably for millions of cycles. The meters are placed in machines to function autonomously. They are mounted in the machine housing, and even if the logic board of a machine is changed (such as putting a new game into an old machine, using new hardware and/or software), the meters remain intact. In a gaming environment, a meter change in a slot machine, or any other gaming machine, must be reported to the appropriate gaming compliance agency.
Nevertheless, electromechanical counters are sill prone to tampering. Although these electromechanical counters do not have a reset feature, they still may be physically altered. Furthermore, a person reading the electromechanical counter may mistakenly misread and record the number shown on the meter, or an unscrupulous individual may deliberately record the wrong number. Therefore, inaccurate data of the financial performance of the machines would be reported. The ability to tamper with the counters to meters without detection has lead to abuse by unscrupulous collectors and service personnel who may decrease the number of games played (or coins inserted, etc.) in order to collect the unreported portion of the revenue.
Additional issues with “wager” type gaming is tracking payments made to gaming machines (often referred to as “coin-in”) and payouts made by gaming machines (often referred to as “coin-out”), and providing convenient methods for paying winning players and permitting players to move credits or value from one machine to another. As indicated, payments made to and made by gaming machines are currently confirmed using mechanical meters. This method is cumbersome and does not permit instantaneous and remote verification of gaming machine accounting data. Separate systems are used to pay players, such as complex voucher systems which include central hosts which generate ticket information when a player wishes to cash-out and which are used to verify and pay tickets when the player wishes to redeem their ticket or provide value to a gaming machine.